Executive experience

VP/SVP Engineering · Head of Engineering · Engineering-centered CTO

A career spent scaling global SaaS engineering organizations: growth from startup to enterprise, platform modernization, operating-model transformation, M&A diligence and integration, and responsible AI adoption. From early-stage builds through PE-backed growth and post-acquisition leadership, across startups, growth-stage SaaS, and global enterprises.

Who I am as an executive

I scale global SaaS engineering organizations, modernize complex platforms, and connect engineering execution to customer and business outcomes. My best work is at inflection points, when an engineering organization, platform, or operating model must evolve to support what comes next.

At Parchment, later acquired by Instructure, I progressed through four engineering leadership roles and helped scale Engineering and Technology from roughly 20 to 100+ people across 10+ countries. I led the organizational and delivery transformation that accompanied that growth, through nine acquisitions, three funding rounds, a recapitalization, and the acquisition and integration into Instructure.

More recently I introduced and led responsible AI adoption across Engineering and Product. The operating lessons behind the work became Profitable Engineering, a leadership book on making delivery visible and connecting technology investment to business outcomes.

What the work produced

100+
Engineers across 10+ countries
80%
Lead time reduction through operating model transformation
99.98%
Production uptime sustained at scale
96%
Production quality with a defect backlog at or near zero
3,000+
Production changes per year
90%+
Retention of high-performing talent
$835M
Acquisition by Instructure
Delivery transformation: Replaced siloed delivery with cross-functional ownership, DevOps automation, and Agile/Lean practices, reducing lead time by 80% and improving speed-to-market, predictability, and team accountability.
Platform modernization: Partnered with architecture and engineering leadership on the monolith-to-microservices transition, reducing batch risk and enabling faster, safer release of high-value changes at scale.
Engineering quality: Strengthened quality through pragmatic guardrails and test discipline, carrying a defect backlog at or near zero and holding production quality around 96% while throughput and delivery speed grew.
Flow and visibility: Introduced flow metrics and aging-of-work visibility to surface dependency bottlenecks, reduce stalled work, and improve planning quality, without blame-based scorecards.
AI operating leverage: Led enterprise AI adoption across engineering through training, governance, IP/PII guardrails, and review workflows, improving delivery effectiveness while supporting responsible, scalable use.
Design and product coordination: Sponsored a design system and deepened Software Engineering and UX collaboration, accelerating iteration and strengthening product-development coordination.

Career chronology

Parchment → Acquired by Instructure 2012 – 2025

Four progressive engineering leadership roles, Director through Vice President

Led and scaled the engineering organization over 12 years as Parchment grew from early product-market fit into a $100M+ credentialing business. I helped design and lead the operating model, leadership development approach, and engineering culture; the organization grew from 20 to more than 100 engineers across 10+ countries and 5 continents, spanning software engineering, quality engineering, DevOps, and release management.

The Parchment transformation

Organization

Roughly 20 to 100+ people across 10+ countries. I built the hiring system, helped build and then lead and improve the career framework and assessment, developed the leadership bench, and moved the organization to durable cross-functional teams. Retention of high-performing talent stayed above 90% through growth and acquisition.

Delivery

I led the shift from batch releases to Agile, Lean, DevOps, and flow. Delivery evolved from two annual releases to 3,000+ production changes a year, lead time fell 80%, and uptime held at 99.98%. Quality held as speed increased: production quality stayed around 96% and the defect backlog stayed at or near zero.

Platform

Partnered with architecture and engineering leadership on the monolith-to-microservices transition, cloud and managed infrastructure, and platform engineering, reducing batch risk while the business kept shipping its roadmap.

Business

Leadership through 9 acquisitions, 3 funding rounds, a $200M recapitalization, and the $835M acquisition by Instructure. Technical diligence, Product and Engineering alignment, and compliance partnership across SOC 1/2, ISO 27001, PCI, and FERPA.


Instructure · Post-acquisition integration 2024 – 2025

Vice President Engineering, Parchment Platform

After the acquisition I led the Parchment engineering division inside Instructure and executed a one-year integration plan: engineering practices, team structures, governance, and knowledge transfer across the combined organization, partnering closely with production engineering as infrastructure platforms were integrated. Delivery velocity held and more than 90% of high-performing talent stayed through the transition. I departed after the primary integration work was completed.


Earlier career

Evergreen came first: building online catalog and ecommerce solutions before the major platforms existed, learning to ship software in a market still being invented. Then nearly a decade at DHL in architecture and engineering leadership across global logistics, where I learned process, governance, and what it takes to operate distributed systems and distributed teams at true scale.

That arc matters. I’ve built inside startups, early-stage software companies ahead of the market, PE-backed growth environments, and global enterprises. Each one taught me something different about what “good” looks like and why copying someone else’s operating model rarely works.

What the people around me say

In 2024, 33 colleagues participated in a Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Leader 360° assessment: peers, direct reports, cross-functional partners, and the CEO. 100% responded. The result placed me in the top 10% of global leaders across all industries and leadership levels. Top 10%

4.91 / 5
Developing others, the highest-scored behavior
4.84 / 5
Trusted by all members of the work group
12 / 19
Competencies at the 75th percentile or above

Across all 19 leadership competencies

Profound
strength
6
90th percentile or above: Develops Others, Builds Relationships, Integrity & Honesty, Values Diversity, Innovates, Learning Agility
Promising
strength
6
75th–89th percentile: Inspires & Motivates, Technical Acumen, Makes Decisions, Takes Initiative, Communicates Powerfully, Takes Risks
Above
average
7
51st–74th percentile: Stretch Goals, Collaboration, Problem Solving, Champions Change, Strategic Perspective, Customer Focus, Drives for Results

Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Leader · 360° assessment, November 2024 · Normed against thousands of global leaders across all industries and leadership levels

Shaping the conversation

Publishing and speaking

  • Profitable Engineering
    Published June 2026
  • Speaker
    Flowtopia, Planview Accelerate, Project to Product Executive Summit
  • Contributor
    IT Revolution and Planview publications
  • Performance Coach
    flowtopia.io

Boards and advisory

  • Board Member
    Value Stream Management Consortium, 2024–2025
  • Advisory Board Member
    Customer Experience Program, UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, 2021–2023
  • Advisor
    GenAI copilot strategy for value stream management platforms

Mentorship and sponsorship

  • Instructure Women’s Leadership Program
    Mentor and sponsor
  • ASU Engineering Capstone Projects
    Industry mentor
  • New engineering managers
    First-time manager communities and ongoing one-on-one mentoring of new line-level managers

What colleagues and leaders say →

Building or transforming a technology organization?

I’m looking to join a team as a VP/SVP of Engineering, Head of Engineering, or engineering-centered CTO. If you’re leading a search at that level, I’d welcome the conversation.

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LinkedIn · Phoenix metro · Remote-first (US) or hybrid